On February 11, 1979, the monarchy of the US-backed Pahlavi regime in Iran was overthrown after months of public unrest and protest that led to the victory of the Islamic Revolution.

Thirty seven years have passed since those momentous days, and the first and foremost fruit of the revolution remains the notion of “independence”. The main motto of the Revolution revolved around negating alien dominance, be it from the West or the East.

The history of colonial interests in Iran is clearly linked to the country’s vast oil and gas resources. The Islamic Revolution in 1979 happened because people had become fed up with a system that exhibited weakness and subservience toward foreign governments, especially Western ones and their interference in the country’s internal and political affairs.

Since 1979, Western media have waged a psychological war against Iran known as Iranophobia which is being followed by sanctions and embargoes. Many Iranian overseas assets were frozen and numerous already-paid-for purchase agreements or partnership contracts were preemptively dishonored and unilaterally rescinded.

But after all the hardships Iran suffered, Tehran now boasts of an indigenous defense industry of an international standard and a high-tech nature. In the realm of science and technology too, Iran has taken great strides and achieved specific goals of a world-class stature. They cover many academic fields, from the engineering departments all the way down to niche medical sciences, where Iranian innovation is traceable by publishable and peer-reviewed standards.

The systematic economic privation unleashed on Iran by Western states in the past 37 years is but a direct result of Iranians’ patriotic bid for political and economic independence and cultural freedom from Western domination. This freedom hasn’t come cheap or easy; the high price for achieving it has been paid in blood and sweat.